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LETTER: Tactics from Berlin airlift would work in Ukraine

Ukraine administrative building stormed March 5, 2014

Hundreds of demonstrators waving Russian flags storm a government building in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.The region is the home area of fugitive Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country after massive protests in Kiev.
(AP File Photo)

Josef Stalin tried to take over West Berlin in 1948 by closing the land lines and supplies of food, fuel, and aid into that part of Berlin controlled by the Americans, British and French. But Harry Truman would have no part of that effort to put West Berlin into communist hands. An airlift was organized by the Americans, the Brits and a number of British Commonwealth countries. After almost a year of feeding and warming the Berliners, an embarrassed Soviet Union gave in to a successful strategy by the Western nations.

Fast forward to Ukraine today and another would-be dictator wanting to take over part of another country. President Obama has to do two things to address the situation and he is working on the first — aid to feed and fuel Ukraine directly by the just- passed loan guarantees and through the IMF “with no strings attached.” Second, he has to convince our allies to join us in isolating Russia economically from the globalized world, particularly the recalcitrant Germans who have to be reminded of the Berlin airlift. If we were able to embarrass Josef Stalin then, we should be able to embarrass Vladimir Putin now.